Marketing is the department primarily responsible for developing the brand within 71% of organizations, with a further 18% leaving responsibility to the MD/CEO.

In terms of influence over the brand, marketing leads the way with 44%, followed by sales 39% and the MD/CEO 15%. 15% of the panel feel all departments have equal influence over an organization’s brand.

100% of the panel feel brand reputation is very important to their organization, however only 66% know they measure it.

Of those that do, the most popular measurement tools are customer focus groups 46%, on-going brand tracking research 38%, competitor analysis 36%.

The panel feels 40% of their department have high engagement levels with the brand, compared to 36% of the wider organization and 37% of their customers. It may be considered slightly worrying that the figure is higher for customer engagement than it is for their colleagues in other departments.

The panel also feel 24% of their department have low engagement levels for their brand, as opposed to only 19% of their customers. A potential problem?

61% of the panel feel there is a slight mismatch between what their customers and what their employees think of their brand. However 76% feel their own perception of their brand is similar to their customers’ perception.

In terms of the importance of their organization’s brand reputation to the panel personally, 24% say it’s essential - they’ll only work for an organization with a strong brand, whereas 59% say it’s very important – a key factor as to where they work.